Going west along the Charles River, we would arrive at the Western District of Barton City. As a city whose entire eastern border was wrapped in the Massa bay, the Western District of Barton is the origin of Barton.
Half a century ago, the city of Barton did not even have a name. It was just the unexplored wilderness of eastern Massa, and together with the current Western District, they used to be managed by Newton City, a city in the east of Barton. An elite group of visionaries took what was now the Western District as a springboard to move east and build what was now Barton City.
After transferring the center of power to The Northern District of Barton, this group of people retracted into the Western District, the origin of the Barton, forming a unique polarization in the Western District. People here were either very, very rich, and were called masters, or they were very, very poor, and became masters' servants.
Benjamin's truck drove through the cobblestone road and stopped outside a manor.
"Grande Funeral Home, we have an appointment with Mrs. Quinn." Benjamin leaned out of the truck's window and said to the security guard wearing a formal uniform.
From the earphones stuffed in the right ear of the security guard and the spiral wire that was stuffed into the inside of the shirt, he could see the radio pinned to his waist. The security guard received the order, slightly bowed to salute, and opened the iron gate of the manor.
Benjamin nodded, and started his muddy truck again to enter the manor.
Zach adjusted the posture of sitting on the front passenger seat, looking at the patterns on the iron fences that were moved away on both sides, and his expression also became serious.
"What's wrong?" Benjamin glanced at the vampire around him, "Afraid?"
Zach looked sideways, "Let's pray that the title deed of this manor is not 'Pooky Quinn'."
Benjamin chuckled, and drove the truck around the fountain in the front courtyard of the manor. The fisherman holding the trident leaned back in a defensive posture. On his left arm, an eagle, with wings spread, was attacking him!
Eagle - The totem of the federal indigenous people. This means that Zach would be bound by the protection of the territory in the indigenous lineage. If the master objected to Zach appearing on his territory, Zach would die.
However, Zach did not believe that Mrs. Quinn would allocate her inheritance in advance, let alone now.
Benjamin jumped out of the truck with an old briefcase hanging on his shoulder. He opened the back door and an adult Great Dane jumped off the truck and looked at the manor indifferently.
"Keep up, Jim." Zach beckoned the dog and walked ahead.
Enter the lobby, indigenous-style rugs, decorations, heraldry. It could be seen that the Quinn couples were very respectful of tradition.
Pooky Quinn hurried through the hall with a few pieces of papers in his hand and found these two 'uninvited guests' in a surprised face.
"Why are you here?" Pooky frowned, looking left and right at the passing servants: "Who let you in!"
"We were invited by Mrs. Quinn to explain the specific process of the funeral." Zach leaned back slightly and answered with a smile.
Pooky frowned more tightly, looking at the briefcase that was carried by Benjamin "give me the process, you can leave now!"
The two didn't move, only a slightly chubby looking Great Dane slowly approached Pooky, but its eyes seemed to be paying attention to the pastries held by the maids.
"What's this!" Pooky moved back a few steps, not daring to approach Great Dane, "No animals are allowed here!"
"Jim." Zach said with a smile: "It's called Jim, it seems to like you very much."
Pooky moved back even further, already appeared a little panicked, the Great Dane named Jim ignored his disgust and kept approaching him.
"I don't care what its name is! Keep it away from me! And you guys! Leave the process information and leave! Get out of my house!"
The servants were doing their own things calmly, but their eyes flashed mockery, looking secretly at this side.
"Young Master." On the left side of the hall, a spiral marble staircase connected the second floor. The female caregiver who was always with Mrs. Quinn, stood by the second-floor guardrail and said softly, "Madam is still waiting for our guests."
Zach smiled at the young female caregiver and turned to Pooky, "It's a shame, this is not your 'house' yet."
Zach walked past Pooky, who was still avoiding the Great Dane, approached the stairs, and Benjamin behind him patted Pooky on the shoulder: "give you a piece of advice. You can try to give it some food, it likes food very much." Benjamin thought for a while, and added another sentence: "all right, don't give it bones, it hates bones."
Under the guidance of the female caregiver, the two nonhumans walked through the curved corridor and entered the balcony of the atrium, where they could see the landscape of the entire atrium. In front of Mrs. Quinn was a Barton Daily newspaper, a small wooden table, and an exquisite small plate with some pastries. It was tea time for Mrs. Quinn now.
"Madam." The female caregiver reminded her and exited the balcony.
Mrs. Quinn turned her head and saw the two of them, and signaled them to sit down. The two of them sat at the small table.
Mrs. Quinn's complexion looked very good, she seemed to have come out of the pain of losing her husband three days ago. At least it was written in the Barton Daily, but we all know the real reason.
Mrs. Quinn handed the newspaper to Zach who had just sat down: "Look at these reports! 'Rise in sadness...', I don't remember when Quinn has fallen before!"
Zach took the newspaper and glanced at it with a smile, "Madam, you know that the reports are always like this, and people like dramatic stories. I like this photo." Zach pointed to a picture in the newspaper that showed Mrs. Quinn was giving a speech in front of the microphone. It was completely different from the feeble look of her when she curled up in the wheelchair. "However, I thought Madam should be more..."
"More?" Mrs. Quinn picked up the teacup. "Low profile?" She took a sip of tea and shook her head: "The consequence of low profile is being poisoned by her grandson? I want to change it."
Mrs. Quinn's generation had withdrawn from the public attention for a long time. They knew that their time had passed, so they gave the stage to the younger generation. Therefore, in recent years, they have rarely appeared in the newspapers. This time Mrs. Quinn's big press conference was indeed a big change.
Zach did not speak, took the briefcase from Benjamin, took out the information, and spread it out on the small table: "The funeral will start at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon, first it will be the memorial service in the church, then..."
"I know the flow of the funeral!" Mrs. Quinn waved impatiently: "I'm interested in how you want to deal with Pooky."
Benjamin chuckled and looked at Zach. Zach had been thinking about this for a few days now.
Zach thought for a while, and asked inquiringly, "Madam, can I ask a question? Does Madam want Pooky to disappear forever? Or just punish him?"
Mrs. Quinn remained silent for a long time and then frowned, looking at Zach, "The reason why I entrust you to do this is that I don't want to think. Now, you come to ask me."
Sometimes people are so strange that they don't want to cross the boundaries, so they ask others for help, let others decide, and then keep their hands clean. Mrs. Quinn is such a person.
Zach and Benjamin glanced at each other and then nodded. Zach looked back at Mrs. Quinn: "Madam, I have an offer. We know that Madam does not want to do anything beyond the boundary. Even if the other party has crossed the boundary, he is still the grandson of Madam..."
"I don't need you to analyze my mind!" Mrs. Quinn seemed a little angry, after all, the matter they were discussing was not pleasant!
Zach didn't mind it and continued: "In short, we thought of a method. As a punishment, Pooky will be disqualified from inheriting everything of the Quinn family."
"Not enough!" Mrs. Quinn's fingers clenched the armrests of the seat tightly. Obviously, she would never forgive Pooky for trying to murder his grandparents. But at the same time, she couldn't testify against her grandson, because that would be a big stain in the Quinn family!
In the life of Mrs. Quinn, she had already covered up a stain of the Quinn family. This time, she still wanted to uphold such a "tradition"!
"No, Madam." Zach appeased the angry Mrs. Quinn: "What is important is not the result of losing the inheritance, but how to make him lose the inheritance."
"What do you mean? "
"No one will leave the property to someone who lives in a sanatorium," Zach replied.
"No!" Mrs. Quinn rejected. The sanatorium was just a euphemism for the mental hospital. Although there were frequent mental disorders of the offsprings of rich families, they were still considered to be scandals and stains.
"Madam, please think about it, now is the best time." Zach tried to persuade Mrs. Quinn, "People will enter the sanatorium, but it doesn't mean that we have to force him."
Mrs. Quinn's eyes widened. In this world, two places were considered to be completely isolated from the outside world. The first was prisons, and the second was sanatoriums (mental hospitals).
Things like people taking the initiative to enter the sanatorium when they noticed that they had problems, such as suicidal tendencies, early bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc, happened all the time. When they realized that they would harm others and themself, some people would actively seek help. Not only people would not despise this kind of person, but they would encourage them.
Just like Zach said, now was the best time for the Quinn family. One of the two remaining relatives in this world has just passed away. No matter how terrible he was, for public opinion, he was experiencing the pain of bereavement, one of the most difficult situations in people's lives...
And these were the resources that Mrs. Quinn could use to shift the public attention.
Mrs. Quinn thought for a while and then nodded calmly, "What do you need me to do?"
Zach heaved a sigh of relief and patted Benjamin's thigh because it was Benjamin's idea.
Of course, Zach's relaxation was also due to Mrs. Quinn's straightforwardness. She did not ask Zach how to accomplish this, but asked "what do you need me to do". For Mrs. Quinn, she knew that there were certain things that she did not need to know. She just needed to treat it as a miracle.
"Madam doesn't need to do anything." Zach smiled and shook his head. "However, we just adopted a Great Dane. It seems to like Young Master Pooky Quinn very much. How about we give it to the young master as a gift?"
Mrs. Quinn picked up the black tea that was already slightly cool and said flatly, "Then I will thank you for him."